1 Moyses autem pascebat oves Jethro soceri sui sacerdotis Madian: cumque minasset gregem ad interiora deserti, venit ad montem Dei Horeb.
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 Moses in Egypt was held in great honor: Pharaoh's daughter called him her own son —yet rejecting this, he chose to be just a shepherd, living in hardship.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 That the Holy Spirit prompted such a move may be seen in Moses, whom the fire led "to the inner parts of the desert," where he received enlightenment. The inner parts are the form of wisdom; the enlightenment is mental ecstasy.
2 Apparuitque ei Dominus in flamma ignis de medio rubi: et videbat quod rubus arderet, et non combureretur.
Clement of Alexandria · AD 215 When the almighty Lord of the universe began to legislate through the Word and decided to make his power visible to Moses, he sent Moses a divine vision with the appearance of light, in the burning bush. Now a bramble bush is full of thorns.
Pacian of Barcelona · AD 391 What does this mean? The vision that is said to have appeared to Moses in the desert is sometimes called an angel, sometimes the Lord. It means this: he is called angel when he served by speaking externally, and Lord, because he ruled within and produced the conditions needed for speaking.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 It is said in Exodus: "That the bush burned and was not consumed," that is, the glorious Virgin, bringing forth the Son of God and light, gave light to the world through the fire of divine love and was not corrupted. The love of charity preserves from corruption.
3 Dixit ergo Moyses: Vadam, et videbo visionem hanc magnam, quare non comburatur rubus.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 Great, then, is the vision, when God is seen with a pure heart. Great is the vision when with a pure heart the Word of God, and the Wisdom of God, who is His Christ, is acknowledged. Great is the vision, to acknowledge and to believe in the Holy Spirit. Great, then, is this vision — the knowledge of the Trinity.
Jerome · AD 420 Moses says, "I must go over to look at this remarkable sight." If he does not go over, that is, if he does not escape all vice, he cannot behold the great marvel.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 Hence Moses, when he was seeking the glory of heavenly contemplation, said, "I will now pass on, and see this great sight." For except he had withdrawn the footstep of the heart from the love of the world, he would never have been able to understand things above.
4 Cernens autem Dominus quod pergeret ad videndum, vocavit eum de medio rubi, et ait: Moyses, Moyses. Qui respondit: Adsum.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 Why should we despair that God should speak in men, who spoke in the thorn bush? God did not despise the bush. Would that he might also give light to my thorns. Perhaps some may wonder that there is some light even in our thorns. Some of our thorns will not burn.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Was the Lord speaking through an angel? Or was the Lord that angel who has been called the "angel of great counsel" and is understood to be Christ? For Scripture said above, "the angel of the Lord appeared to him."
Peter Chrysologus · AD 450 This is why he summons Moses by his fatherly voice, addresses him with paternal love and invites him to be the liberator of his people. Why should I say more? He makes him a god; he sets him up as a god before Pharaoh. He makes him a god, fortifies him with signs, arms him with virtues, wins wars through mere commands, grants to him as a soldier victory gained by a mere word.
5 At ille: Ne appropies, inquit, huc: solve calceamentum de pedibus tuis: locus enim, in quo stas, terra sancta est.
Acts · AD 62 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abrham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 For it is said to Moses when he was desiring to draw nearer: "Put off your shoes from your feet," how much more must we free the feet of our soul from the bonds of the body and clear our steps from all connection with this world.
John Damascene · AD 749 The burning bush was an image of God's mother, and when Moses was about to approach it, God said, "Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." Now if the ground where Moses saw an image of the Theotokos is holy ground, how much more holy is the image itself? Not only is it holy, I daresay, but the holy of holies.
6 Et ait: Ego sum Deus patris tui, Deus Abraham, Deus Isaac et Deus Jacob. Abscondit Moyses faciem suam: non enim audebat aspicere contra Deum.
Mark · AD 60 Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed.
Aphrahat the Persian Sage · AD 345 And when the holy One called Moses from the bush he said thus to him: "I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob." When Death heard this utterance, he trembled and feared and was terrified and perturbed and knew that he had not become king forever over the children of Adam.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 The first object of speculation is the fact that God is. The first name of God is "To Be" which is most manifest and most perfect — and therefore, first. Hence nothing is more manifest, for anything said of God is retraced to being: this then is truly God's proper name. God would not have said to Moses, that is to the Giver of the Law, "I am who am," unless He were First.
7 Cui ait Dominus: Vidi afflictionem populi mei in Ægypto, et clamorem ejus audivi propter duritiam eorum qui præsunt operibus:
Acts · AD 62 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abrham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
8 et sciens dolorem ejus, descendi ut liberem eum de manibus Ægyptiorum, et educam de terra illa in terram bonam, et spatiosam, in terram quæ fluit lacte et melle, ad loca Chananæi et Hethæi, et Amorrhæi, et Pherezæi, et Hevæi, et Jebusæi.
Tertullian · AD 220 … Jesus Christ was to introduce the second people (which is composed of us nations, lingering deserted in the world previously) into the land of promise, "flowing with milk and honey" (that is, into the possession of eternal life, than which nothing is sweeter).
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 I ask whether we should take the land flowing with milk and honey spiritually, since, according to the proper sense, this phrase does not describe the land that was being given to the people of Israel. Or is it a figure of speech that is used to praise the richness and sweetness of the land?
9 Clamor ergo filiorum Israël venit ad me: vidique afflictionem eorum, qua ab Ægyptiis opprimuntur.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Clamor: not like the clamor of the Sodomites, which signified iniquity without fear or shame.
10 Sed veni, et mittam te ad Pharaonem, ut educas populum meum, filios Israël, de Ægypto.
11 Dixitque Moyses ad Deum: Quis sum ego ut vadam ad Pharaonem, et educam filios Israël de Ægypto?
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 Moses said, "Who am I to go before Pharaoh?" Although I have a royal title, I will not be received by him. And now that I do the work of a simple shepherd, who will allow me to go before Pharaoh? And even if I were let in, what importance would he see in me to believe my words?
12 Qui dixit ei: Ego ero tecum: et hoc habebis signum, quod miserim te: cum eduxeris populum meum de Ægypto, immolabis Deo super montem istum.
Acts · AD 62 Then said the high priest, Are these things so? And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.
13 Ait Moyses ad Deum: Ecce ego vadam ad filios Israël, et dicam eis: Deus patrum vestrorum misit me ad vos. Si dixerint mihi: Quod est nomen ejus? quid dicam eis?
14 Dixit Deus ad Moysen: Ego sum qui sum. Ait: Sic dices filiis Israël: Qui est, misit me ad vos.
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 That the activity of the Father and the Son is to be found both in saints and in sinners is clear from the fact that all rational beings are partakers of the word of God, that is, of reason, and so have implanted within them some seeds, as it were, of wisdom and righteousness, which is Christ.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 Wouldest thou learn also His eternity? Hear what Moses saith concerning the Father. When he asked what he was commanded to answer should the Jews enquire of him, "Who it was that had sent him," he heard these words: "Say, I AM hath sent me." Now the expression "I AM," is significative of Being ever, and Being without beginning, of Being really and absolutely.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 The first object of speculation is the fact that God is. The first name of God is "To Be" which is most manifest and most perfect — and therefore, first. Hence nothing is more manifest, for anything said of God is retraced to being: this then is truly God's proper name. God would not have said to Moses, that is to the Giver of the Law, "I am who am," unless He were First.
15 Dixitque iterum Deus ad Moysen: Hæc dices filiis Israël: Dominus Deus patrum vestrorum, Deus Abraham, Deus Isaac et Deus Jacob, misit me ad vos: hoc nomen mihi est in æternum, et hoc memoriale meum in generationem et generationem.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 For God and Lord is a name of majesty, a name of power, even as God himself says, "The Lord is my name," and as in another place the prophet declares, "The Lord almighty is his name." He is God, therefore, and Lord, either because his rule is over all or because he beholds all things and is feared by all without exception.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 What does it mean then that later on he gave himself another name, where it says, "And the Lord said to Moses, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob: this is my name forever"? How is it that there I am called this name that shows "I am," and lo and behold here is another name: "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob"?
Bonaventure · AD 1257 The first object of speculation is the fact that God is. The first name of God is "To Be" which is most manifest and most perfect — and therefore, first. Hence nothing is more manifest, for anything said of God is retraced to being: this then is truly God's proper name. God would not have said to Moses, that is to the Giver of the Law, "I am who am," unless He were First.
16 Vade, et congrega seniores Israël, et dices ad eos: Dominus Deus patrum vestrorum apparuit mihi, Deus Abraham, Deus Isaac et Deus Jacob, dicens: Visitans visitavi vos: et vidi omnia quæ acciderunt vobis in Ægypto.
17 Et dixi ut educam vos de afflictione Ægypti in terram Chananæi, et Hethæi, et Amorrhæi, et Pherezæi, et Hevæi, et Jebusæi, ad terram fluentem lacte et melle.
18 Et audient vocem tuam: ingredierisque tu, et seniores Israël, ad regem Ægypti, et dices ad eum: Dominus Deus Hebræorum vocavit nos: ibimus viam trium dierum in solitudinem, ut immolemus Domino Deo nostro.
19 Sed ego scio quod non dimittet vos rex Ægypti ut eatis nisi per manum validam.
Clement of Alexandria · AD 215 He said to Moses, "Go and speak to Pharaoh, that he may let my people go, but I know that he will not let them go.…" He manifests his divinity by foreseeing what is to happen and also his love for man by offering to the free will of man an opportunity to repent.
20 Extendam enim manum meam, et percutiam Ægyptum in cunctis mirabilibus meis, quæ facturus sum in medio eorum: post hæc dimittet vos.
21 Daboque gratiam populo huic coram Ægyptiis: et cum egrediemini, non exibitis vacui:
22 sed postulabit mulier a vicina sua et ab hospita sua, vasa argentea et aurea, ac vestes: ponetisque eas super filios et filias vestras, et spoliabitis Ægyptum.
Tertullian · AD 220 The Egyptians put in a claim on the Hebrews for these gold and silver vessels. The Hebrews assert a counterclaim, alleging that by the bond of their respective fathers, attested by the written engagement of both parties, there were due to them the arrears of that laborious slavery of theirs for the bricks they had so painfully made and the cities and palaces which they had buil…
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Accordingly on the one hand the Egyptians deserved being deceived, and on the other the people of Israel were then situated at such a level of morality, because of the age of the human race, that it would not be unworthy of them to deceive an enemy.